


are we live? we're live

by downtothewire



Category: Marvel, Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 13:31:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15664185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/downtothewire/pseuds/downtothewire
Summary: Karolina, Nico, and Gert are doing an Instagram live. People ship Karolina and Nico together, but they have never admitted their feelings for each other.Inspired by Ginny, Lyrica, and Ariela’s recent Instagram live and a prompt by ‘prompter’.





	are we live? we're live

They were live on Instagram. Her, Nico, and Gert.

Karolina met Gert - her best friend, current roommate, and a youtuber essayist - in high school. They had been inseparable ever since she could remember. She met Nico the way most people meet nowadays: through the internet. 

Karolina started her YouTube channel as a way to rant - about her parents, about her school, about everything she thought was remotely interesting. When she came out her following grew exponentially and she found her channel growing into more of a community. A place where people who had gone through, or were going through, similar experiences as her could connect.

Nico's channel had grown because of Nico's talent - pure and simple. Karolina might be biased, but she found that Nico's viewership had been loyal from the beginning because of the outrageous things she was able to do with makeup and hair. She had known about Nico for years through the internet, but she officially met her through Gert. She immediately fell head over heels. 

Nico had never hid her sexuality from her audience always making it clear that it was about the person to her and nothing else. And even though Karolina knew that Nico liked girls, it didn't mean that she liked her.

So, they were live. For the first time. The three of them: Gert, Nico, and Karolina - best friends. But none of them knew it because they were trying to figure out how the damn thing worked. Nico and Karolina shared a chair while Gert stood behind them.

"Do you think if I tap it it'll work?" Karolina asked. She tapped the phone and it slid forward making a loud noise as it hit the table.

"Fuck, did it break?" Nico asked. She lifted up the phone and they were all relieved to see the screen was fine.

"You two are terrible at this. Here, let me," Gert interrupted and took the phone from Karolina's hands to check it. She brought it up to her face giving her audience an awkward view up her nostrils before realizing they were already live.

"We're already live!" she said in exasperation thinking of the GIFs that would come tomorrow of the angle she afforded the thousand people already watching.

"Okay, so, do you guys have any questions for us?" Nico asked.

The questions started rolling in. They ranged between where did they get what they were wearing to more outrageous and inappropriate questions from creepy men that always seemed to be present on the internet. 'They had just turned eighteen for God's sake' Karolina thought. But the questions that seemed to be more prevalent were the ones about Nico and Karolina and the ever present doubt of whether they were dating or not. 

Despite the painful reassurance time and time again from Karolina that they were indeed not dating, the fans kept asking and #deanoru kept trending. It was like she couldn't breathe near Nico that people would think it was sign. She pretended not to mind, because Nico didn't seem to, even joking at times by posting pictures kissing Karolina's cheek. Karolina did mind, however, not because of the fans, but just because it was a constant reminder that they weren't indeed dating.

The live was filled with hugs and laughter from all three girls as they responded to the insane questions that appeared on their screen. At one point they played a game of who could make Nico break first. Of course, Karolina won. At another, they got more serious and talked about future projects they were excited to share with their following. It got to a point, though, that Nico and Karolina were so wrapped up in each other they didn't even notice the messages starting to pop up with comments calling Gert a third wheel.

"Okay, I can see where I'm not wanted," Gert said sarcastically starting to leave the room.

"What?" Nico asked, confused.

"Stop it. Stay," Karolina told her once she read the comments underneath, "They're only joking."

"Oh, I know. I'm their favorite apparently," Gert said with a new air of arrogance as comments of 'you're our favorite, gert!' started appearing at her over dramatics, "But who am I to deny the people their Deanoru time. I'm hungry, anyway. I'll go heat up something and give your shippers sometime to find something to GIF. I'll be right back. Try not to hook up while I'm gone."

Karolina's cheeks automatically felt on fire as Gert left the room. Neither knew what to say next. The tension in the air could've then be cut by a knife. Both Nico and Karolina became intensely awkward.

Nico finally sighed loudly, which made Karolina look at her. Nico wasn't looking at her back. She was staring the camera straight down as if looking in its nonexistent eye.

"Look, guys, I know you would like Karolina and I to be dating, but we're not. I know we take have fun with it too by posting pictures and making jokes on twitter, but we're just friends. Honestly."

The words hurt Karolina. She hoped it wasn't too obvious for the audience. She didn't want people to start commenting that somehow Nico was friendzoning her, because she would take Nico in anyway she could get - friend or more.

Nico turned to look at her, but Karolina was speechless. She was too afraid that anything she said right now might give her away. Nico kept looking at her, though, pleading for help. Which made Karolina finally decide to chime in, "She's right, guys. We love you. And we want you to enjoy our content and to like who we are, but we can't pretend we're dating when we're not. I love Nico. She's one of my best friends, but we're not together. Someone one day will be lucky enough to have her."

"Yeah, guys, and someone will be lucky to have Kar. Do you think I can't see that she's gorgeous? Get real why would she be with me me? She'd be dating a model," Nico joked, but the comment struck a chord with Karolina.

"Do you actually think you're not pretty enough for me?" Karolina asked in a moment of vulnerability.

"Are you kidding me? Have you seen you?" Nico asked, the smirk on her face present, thinking that they were still joking. But Karolina got serious, she looked down, and got that look in her eyes that happened when she was trying to process something. Nico realized that the joke was over.

Nico turned to the camera before continuing awkwardly in a fake chirpy voice, "Okay, so, yeah, guys. Only friends. But that's all that we got for you today. We'll see you guys later and thank you so much for staying to talk to us!"

Karolina didn't say anything, still lost in thought, so Nico poked her to bring her out of her mood. Karolina looked up and at the remembrance that they were still live, her demeanor changed to her usual bubbly self, "Yeah, guys, thank you for stopping by. We'll talk to you later. Love you."

"Love you, guys," Nico said before putting the phone down.

Karolina exhausted all of her fake energy and just went back to her previous moody self.

"What's wrong?" she heard Nico ask her.

"Nothing," Karolina mumbled.

"Come on, Kar. You can tell me anything."

"Not this."

"Why not?"

"Because..."

"Kar, I don't get it. I just said you were pretty and now you're acting like this. I'm confused."

"It wasn't the pretty comment."

"Then what was it?"

"Were you serious when you said you weren't good enough for me?"

"Well, I didn't say good enough, but no, but, I mean..." Nico sighed, "You're gorgeous, Kar, and I'm me. I'm not stupid."

"Oh, shut up," Karolina responded annoyed.

"What?" Nico responded affronted.

"Why are you always so hard on one of my best friends?"

"I didn't-- I didn't mean..."

"You're always so hard on yourself, Nico. It's always I'm not pretty enough, not talented enough, not smart enough. Have you thought that maybe I think you're the one who's too good for me?" Karolina spoke so fast and with so much passion on the subject that she missed the subtext of what she let slip.

But Nico didn't, "Do you really think I'm too good for you?"

Karolina mumbled, "Maybe..."

She couldn't look Nico in the eyes. This entire moment felt like a confession she wasn't ready to make.

"Do you like me, Kar?"

"Of course I like you!" Karolina's head whipped up and she said outraged.

"You know what I mean do you like like me?" Nico asked.

Karolina couldn't say anything, scared of what she knew would come next, rejection.

"Cause I like you," She barely heard Nico's voice, but the phrase kept ringing in her eardrums.

"You like me?" Karolina asked dumbfounded.

Nico nodded softly.

"I like you too," Karolina said. 

They leaned closer to each other.

But then Gert entered the room, a bowl of ramen in hand. Karolina and Nico jumped apart from each other.

"I felt like this was as good of a moment as any to tell you guys that you're still live," she said nonchalantly, blowing on the noodles on her fork.

"We're what?!" Nico screamed, frozen in place.

"Lives disappear right? Maybe nobody saw it. We did say we were leaving," Karolina tried.

"Oh, no," Gert continued as she moved her fork around the ramen, "Several people saw, trust me. And if they didn't record it, I did."

Now, both Nico and Karolina were frozen. Gert reached for the phone to reveal that simply putting it down apparently hadn't stopped the live show. She went behind both of them and raised the phone in a selfie motion.

"Say Deanoru," she said while smiling at the camera. Neither Karolina nor Nico were smiling, "That's going to make such a great post on my Instagram."

The live was being flooded with messages of people freaking out that Nico and Karolina had admitted their feelings for each other and the other half talking about how much they loved Gert.

"Well, guys these two seem like they have a lot to talk about, so, we're just going to go. Don't forget to always be open with the person you like because you never know, they might just like you back. As you can see evidenced by these two," Gert said and turned the camera to face an awkward Nico and Karolina.

"Love you, guys. And if no one recorded that moment, DM me and I'll upload the footage. Much love always and be kind to people."

And just like that the live ended.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little fluff for the heart. I was thinking about writing something about this, but then wasn’t really having the inspiration. A comment on my last fic asking me for this as a prompt was the inspiration I needed. This is just a sort of a quick one-shot I threw together because my beautiful babies kept me fed with the live content.
> 
> If whoever the prompter was wants to come forward, I’ll add their username to the description. :)
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Tumblr: @downtothe-wire
> 
> PS: Ginny says that Nico's a top, and I'm okay with that.


End file.
